Still, the speed of the train was really low. If he had known earlier, he would have simply taken the plane. Passing a whole nine hours on the train was a little unbearable!

　　While in deep thought, Song Shuhang stretched out his hand and put it in the size-reducing purse.

　　“What are you doing?” Lady Onion’s voice echoed from the size-reducing purse.

　　“I was looking for ‘spirit beast crystals’. Since I’m bored and have nothing to do, I thought of eating something,” Song Shuhang replied.

　　“Wait a moment, I’ll get them for you. Just because you have nothing to do, don’t casually start rummaging through my home. Every time you do that, the whole place becomes a mess, and I have to go through a lot of trouble to put everything back in order, you know?” Lady Onion said solemnly.

　　“I’m sorry,” Song Shuhang unconsciously apologized. But after apologizing, he discovered that there was something wrong…

　　Wasn’t the size-reducing purse his property? Since when did it become Lady Onion’s house?!

　　However, given the fact that Lady Onion had saved his life quite a few times by activating the defensive talismans in the size-reducing purse, he decided not to quarrel with her.

　　After a short time, Lady Onion handed him over a small bag with horse-type spirit beast crystals of the Second and Third Stage rank inside. These spirit beast crystals were something the stallion spirit had gifted to Song Shuhang as an apology after sneak attacking him—for the sake of kidnapping Lady Onion—and getting brutally beaten by Young Master Phoenix Slayer.

　　Song Shuhang took out of a horse-type spirit beast crystal of the Second Stage rank and silently operated the ❮Thirty-Three Divine Beasts’ Technique❯ and ❮Whale Swallowing Technique❯. After a few cracking sounds, the spirit beast crystal was crushed and swallowed down.

　　Compared to mere ‘spirit stones’, Song Shuhang prefered ‘spirit beast crystals’ of equal rank.

　　After all, the price of spirit beast crystals was lower than spirit stones of equal rank.

　　Beyond that, after using the ❮Whale Swallowing Technique❯ and eating a spirit beast crystal, not only could Song Shuhang obtain a similar amount of energy that could be converted into true qi, but he could also increase the level of his ❮Thirty-Three Divine Beasts’ Technique❯. Every time he ate a spirit beast crystal, the projection of that huge whale made of ‘thirty-three beasts’ inside his body would become more powerful.

　　Spirit beast crystals were fine goods at a low price.

　　The possibility of increasing one’s strength just by eating… the person that researched and created this marvelous technique back in the ancient Heavenly City was surely a genius! Song Shuhang thought to himself.

　　“Crack, crack, crack~”

　　Spirit beast crystals were bitten to pieces and eaten one after another, and the ‘innate liquefied true qi’ inside his body became much stronger as a consequence.

　　If the spiritual energy of the Fifth Stage that Ye Si had transmitted over was taken into account—as well as the power of the living spring in his Heart Aperture—the day Song Shuhang would impact the third meridian of the Third Stage Realm, the Blazing Sun Meridian, was just around the corner.

　　After the Blazing Sun Meridian was the Immaterial King Meridian, the last meridian!

　　After opening the Immaterial King Meridian, the four meridians would merge into one, and the Body of the Battle King would activate. After that, the heavenly tribulation of the Third Stage would descend, and the cultivator would have the possibility to break through the Fourth Stage Realm.

　　The Fourth Stage… after reaching that realm, Shuhang would be able to ride a flying saber! So cool!

　　The bright future was happily waving at him.

　　“After reaching the Fourth Stage, I won’t have to ride something as slow and troublesome as a train.” Song Shuhang ridiculed himself in a soft voice.

　　Right at this time, Senior Sister Ye Si, who was inside his body, said, [Eh? Shuhang… you actually didn’t want to travel by train?]

　　[Yup, it’s too slow, and I’m feeling somewhat bored,] Song Shuhang replied in his mind.

　　[You should have said it earlier! I would have directly flown you back home. I’m a Fifth Stage Spiritual Emperor, after all! I thought you simply liked traveling by train,] Ye Si said.

　　“…” Song Shuhang.

　　When he’d decided to return home, he hadn’t thought about the fact that Ye Si could ride a flying sword.

　　His lack of knowledge was to blame here!

　　[Still, traveling by train feels rather interesting. I stayed in the Crystal-Clear Water Pavilion for a long time, and I didn’t expect that human society would change so much in the meantime,] Ye Si said.

　　[And there is even more interesting stuff. After returning to Wenzhou City, I’ll bring you to the city library. You will love that place,] Song Shuhang said with a smile.

　　[Sure~] Ye Si said.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　Song Shuhang kept stuffing spirit beast crystals in his mouth while chatting with Ye Si in his mind.

　　In the meantime, the train had reached the nearest train stop, and new passengers got on it.

　　A young mother led her four years old daughter and got on the train. She held the ticket of the train in her hand and started looking for a seat. After a short moment, she brought her daughter along and arrived next to Song Shuhang.

　　The two of them sat there.

　　The young mother sat on the seat adjacent to the corridor, while the daughter sat next to Song Shuhang.

　　The girl was around four years old and had ear-length hair and sparkling big eyes, and wore a one-piece dress. She looked like a lovely porcelain doll.

　　When the mother and the daughter sat next to him, Song Shuhang happened to be holding a spirit beast crystal in his hand. He was conversing with Ye Si in his mind while chewing down on half of that spirit beast crystal.

　　Spirit beast crystals had different shapes. Some looked like pearls, and others like diamonds or crystals. However, regardless of their shape, they were all very hard, and definitely not something a human being could eat and digest.

　　Song Shuhang was emitting very clear and sharp sounds while using the ❮Whale Swallowing Technique❯ to eat those spirit beast crystals.

　　And the noises Song Shuhang was making while eating the spirit beast crystals immediately attracted the attention of the little girl. As such, she raised her small head and curiously looked at Song Shuhang.

　　“Crack, crack, crack~” Right at that time, Song Shuhang stuffed the remaining half of the spirit beast crystal into his mouth and started chewing on it.

　　The little girl immediately opened her eyes wide.

　　The mother likewise turned her head and curiously looked at Song Shuhang.

　　“Elder brother, you are incredible!” the little girl said in stiff Mandarin. Her Mandarin still wasn’t that good.

　　Song Shuhang turned his head around and then awkwardly blinked while looking at the little girl.

　　The little girl likewise blinked her eyes and kindly reminded Song Shuhang, “Still, elder brother, those things look very hard and pretty troublesome to digest. If you suffer from pica ¹ , you should try to change your habit as soon as possible.”

　　When it came to long sentences, her pronunciation wandered off even more from the standard one, becoming even more difficult to understand.

　　“…” Song Shuhang.

　　I don’t have pica! But from a certain point of view, after learning the ❮Whale Swallowing Technique❯, one can eat spirit beast crystals just as though they were eating candies, and there isn’t much difference from someone with pica!

　　The young mother gently patted her daughter; then, a little embarrassed, she said to Song Shuhang, “I’m sorry, but children don’t know better. Mister, don’t mind what she said.” The pronunciation of the mother was likewise different from the standard one. However, it was still much better than her daughter’s.

　　Song Shuhang awkwardly smiled, and said, “It’s alright. The girl was just being kind. She’s a good girl.”

　　“Thank you.” The little girl accepted Song Shuhang’s compliment. Then, she again blinked her eyes and kept looking at Song Shuhang.

　　Song Shuhang felt rather uncomfortable after getting stared at like that.

　　“Elder brother, as expected, you look somewhat familiar.” The little girl lowered her voice, and then said, “The trailer of that movie, ❮Apocalypse War❯! Since after watching the trailer, my father shouts the sentence ‘Senior Brother Gao Sheng must die!’ every day, causing a ruckus each time.”

　　Song Shuhang touched his own face.

　　He had really become a superstar… the villainous type of superstar. Even though he came out clean of that mess in the end, the hate people felt for his character didn’t diminish. It seemed it would be best to use the shapeshifting brooch to alter his appearance when going out or wear large sunglasses so as to avoid people putting a gunnysack on his head and beating him up.

　　Just as Song Shuhang was in deep thought, an uncle seated behind him smiled, and said, “Eh? I also hear this sentence very often as of late. My daughter repeatedly shouted it during the past few days. I heard it’s related to the movie ❮Apocalypse War❯.”

　　The voice of the uncle had hardly faded that…

　　❮Apocalypse War❯’s trailer started to play on the screen mounted in the compartment of the train.

　　Mister Yellow Mountain was really all-resourceful!

　　The advertisements had reached even the train.

　　Most of the passengers currently on the train were in a hurry, and didn’t have the opportunity to watch ❮Apocalypse War❯ today due to the lack of time.

　　But now that the trailer suddenly played on the screen, the movie immediately became their main conversation topic. A lot of people had started to chat about the movie with the people seated next to them.

　　Senior Yellow Mountain, you are really putting me into trouble now!

　　Song Shuhang quietly turned his head to one side and ‘wore’ a pair of sunglasses. Actually, he didn’t have any sunglasses with him and just used the ‘shapeshifting brooch’ to make a pair appear on his face out of thin air—he also slightly altered his features while he was at it.

　　After he was done, he turned his head back once more.

　　The nearby little girl was still looking at him and smiling, looking very cute.

　　Song Shuhang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

　　The little girl gave Song Shuhang the thumbs up, and said, “Don’t worry, elder brother. My mouth is shut.” She was a very sensible girl.

　　“Thank you,” Song Shuhang said.

　　“However, you can make my mouth shut even more tightly,” the little girl said.

　　While speaking, she took out paper and pen from her small bag. She wanted Song Shuhang’s autograph. What kind of face would her father make after seeing that she had brought home Senior Brother Gao Sheng’s autograph? She was looking forward to seeing it.

　　“Child, do you want hush money?” Song Shuhang laughed.

　　Speaking of ‘hush money’ that was suited to children, he indeed had something good with him. “Look, elder brother will now show you a magic trick.”

　　Song Shuhang placed his hands in front of his mouth and then blew at them, activating his Lotus Blossoming Tongue skill.

　　Three sparkling lotus flowers appeared in his hands.

　　Song Shuhang quickly made two of the lotus flowers disappear and then gifted the last one to the little girl. “I’ll gift you this. This is my hush money for you.”

　　The reason Song Shuhang chose to use the Lotus Blossoming Tongue skill to create this gift was that he found the little girl rather familiar-looking.

　　“So beautiful.” The little girl took the lotus flower and completely forgot about the autograph she wanted a moment ago.

　　At the same time, the aroma of the lotus flower immediately spread all around.

　　After smelling the aroma, people felt their appetite getting stimulated.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　At this time, in a place that was three compartments away from Song Shuhang’s.

　　A lovely little monk and two young girls were sitting in a row.

　　The small monk looked around six years old. As for the girls, the younger one looked around seven years old, and the older one around ten years old. From the looks of it, the trio wasn’t accompanied by a guardian… Actually, how did they even get on the train in the first place?

　　The three of them were nibbling on vegetarian steamed stuffed buns when they suddenly raised their heads in unison.

　　“There was a fluctuation of spiritual energy,” the slightly younger girl said in a soft voice.

　　“The place it came from is three compartments ahead of us. Should we go there and take a look?” the small monk said.

　　“Younger sister, Little Guoguo, we shouldn’t cause any more trouble. The fact that we quietly ran away is already bad enough… and casually offending an unknown senior would be even worse,” the slightly older girl said, somewhat worried.